"And so it begins." Matt thought to himself as he got out of his fathers
silver, Ford F-150. The tall and skinny spiky haired 14 year old stretched
and gave a little yawn. It had begun, a week camping, the week of the
Fourth Of July 2001. It wasn't just his mother and father that he came
with. His father's friend, Davey, had come with his two children and wife,
Jamie. Pat was 14, like Matt, and Becky was 15. Matt didn't know either
very well at the time, but had a week with them, and knew he would.

"Hey!" Becky called as she gave Matt a hug. Being as shy as he was, he
smiled and quietly replied, "hey." Matt wasn't hot, he knew it, there was
no getting around it, so he was unsure of his and others actions. Was Becky
just being friendly? Or was there something more to it? He thought.

The 5'9" teen followed his parents into the tiny store to pay for their
site. At one point, Matt turned around and saw her. She looked to be about
the same age as Becky, she had dyed her hair orange, and it looked quite
nice. He turned around but he couldn't face forward long, he had to look
again.

And so he did, he saw the same thing, and Becky was talking to her! They
seemed like old friends and Matt hoped they were. "Friends of Becky's are
friends of mine." He silently thought with a smirk.

His dad backed the trailer into the site with help from one of the owner's
sons, Jeff. It turns out, Davey and Jeff went back a long way. On top of
that, the girl Matt was checking out was Jeff's daughter, Randi.

The day went by very fast. Everyone set their campers up, and had a swim in
one of the many lakes in the 1000 Islands area. There were two cliffs over
the lake. They were aptly named Big Rock and Little Rock. Big Rock was
about 25 feet off the water, Little Rock was about 10.

Without any fear, Matt jumped off of Little Rock. He had his eyes set on
Big Rock though. He had never really liked heights. The blonde boy slowly
paced along the top of the cliff. He said to Becky, "you only live once I
guess." And with that, jumped off of Big Rock.

He came out from below the water and caught his breath. He climbed out of
the water and dried off. He walked by Randi, gave a smile, and whispered to
himself, "daaaamn, I'm beginning to think this vacation will be juuust
fine."

Pat and Matt walked to the porch of the store where Randi and Becky were
already. The groups chatted until Randi was off from working at the store.
She then called Brandon, her cousin, and Becky's love and told him to "get
your fat ass down here." Minutes later, Brandon was down. Like cavemen, the
teens wanted fire. Everyone but Matt and Randi were fighting about what to
do.

"Now children, calm down." Randi said.

"Yes, mother." Matt replied with a warm joking smirk.

"Shaddup." Randi answered as she nudged Matt in the arm.

The fire was nice and warm for a while, until,

"Great, rain." Matt groaned.

"Into the store." Randi sighed.

They filed in and sat down and talked some more. Lots of jokes were
cracked, and laughter filled the store. Brandon went home, Becky and Pat
went to bed, and Jeff came down to pick up his only child and take her
home.

"Nite, Randi." Matt said.

"Goodnight, Matt." Randi answered in a yawn.

"See you tomorrow?" Questioned Matt.

"You betcha." Sang Randi.

Matt got into bed and said as his head hit the pillow,

"Two new friends, cool, I hope we come up here a lot."

Little did he know, but everyone he met, and was with, especially Randi,
would change his life forever, it would never be the same, there would be
more ups, downs, smiles, frowns, cheers, and tears then he could have ever
imagined or dreamt of in his life.

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